The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-05-24
A SAURIAN PET.
Some Interesting Facts About the
Florida Chameleon.
The Old Notions Exploded About the Little
Animal Changing His Color at WILL
and Living on Air-Desperate
Fight

The Florida chameleon is the gentlest
and prettiest of saurians. 1t is saying
In the South that this little creature is
an exact reproduction of the alligator
on a very diminutive scale, but this is
not true. The fiat head and leaden
eyes of the alligator are not reproduced
in the chameleon, though i'm other
, respects the likeness is very close. The
chameleon's head is narrow, its mouth
innocent-looking, and its eyes sparkle
like diamonds.
But if the chameleon and alligator
are closely similar in shape, they are
widely different in size. An alligator
twelve or fourteen feet in length, sun.
ming himself on sand-bar, and cham
eleon three or four inches long, taking
a siesta on an orange leaf, afford con-
trast so striking that they are not likely
to be mistaken for twin-brothers.
Sometimes, however, chameleons are
mistaken by strangers for young alli-
gators.
Ia railway car that was whirling
through the Florida pine woods, last
winter, a chameleon awakened a great
!. deal of curiosity IN number of boy
and girl passengers from the North. by
descending upon the window-pane to
the cherry-red sill, and looking them
over with its sparkling brown eyes.
BY accident or design, the little Great
ure's color was at that moment quiet
drab. After discussing it for some time,
the young people came to the conclu-
sion that it was an infant alligator.
Meanwhile, the chameleon had darted
across the panel to the next window,
where little Cracker" girl had taken
it in her hand and adorned its neck
with bit of red yarn from her hood.
What is it, little girl P" one of the
party asked.
Yarn" said she.
HE means what's the ANIMAL" an
other of the young Northerners ex-
planned.
This yer?" she asked, with surprise,
pointing to the little creature. "Why,
that's er cumeelyum''
The INTEREST," of the young Northerners
now became greater even than it had
been. They had always regarded cha
meleons and salamanders as among the
most wonderful things in the world
chameleons with their gift of being able
to change their color to that of the OBJ
feet on which they happened to be rest
ing, and salamanders, with their fond
ness for skipping about among live
Goals and darling flames.
Yet here was a genuine chameleon
that did not become red when it halted
on the cherry window-sill, and did not
turn green when it rested on the
Cracker girls frock, but with an ap-
pesrance of disregard for the most
striking thing told about it in the story
books, preserved its modest drab
through all these vicissithdes. But,
however useful as a sanitary precaution,
or appropriate from an artistic point of
view, it might be for chameleons to
change their color to m atch their i'm
mediate surroundings, there is no suffi-
cient season for believing that the fac
ulty of doing 50 is possessed by them.
Naturalists favor the theory that the
changes of color are the result of ten
sion or relaxation of the fibrous muscles
in the skin, by which the minute
scales are so arranged that the pre-
dominating tint reflected from them is
red, green or neutral. according to the
arrangement.
Whether this muscular action is VOL
untary or involuntary, nobody knows.
So it can not be settled at present
whether a chameleon turns green for
the reason that he prefers to be green,
simply because he happens to have
done something that incidentally makes
chameleons green. But after all the
theorizing, it is fact that chameleon
found on a lily-pad is more likely to be
green than red, and that one found on
the bark of a tree is more often of o
neutral tint than either red or green.
There is another thing told about
chameleons that would be very inter
esting If it were true-that they eat
nothing but air. But it isn't true.
Chameleons are not heavy eaters, and
they are very irregular about taking
their meals. 1t is fortunate for them
that they have to devote but little at